Twelve RTMA students had the opportunity of a lifetime as they participated in a special NCSY-sponsored chesed trip to Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, last weekend.

The trip, developed especially for RTMA and led by Central and Southern NCSY Director Rabbi Shmuel Greene, had the boys travel to Detroit where they participated in several Habitat for Humanity projects and then cross the border for Shabbat, where they brought spiritual light and energy to the once vibrant Jewish community of Windsor, Ontario.

The trip was all about empowerment,” said Rabbi Greene. “It was their trip and they drove it – from the learning to the divrei Torah and everything in between. It was bottom up and not the other way around,” he said.

For the NCSY director, it was an excellent opportunity for the boys to confront the realities of what’s happening in mainstream USA today. “While it may not be happening in Elizabeth or Teaneck,” he said, “It is happening all over the country, and it’s devastating,” he said, speaking of the loss of active Jewish life in Windsor.

The boys on the mission were selected through a rigorous exercise that had students writing essays and attending interviews in order to qualify. Rabbi Greene plans to hold at least one reunion in the coming months and said that he hopes the boys will feel inspired and empowered to identify something meaningful that they will initiate on their own after having experienced such a powerful weekend of chesed in the MidWest.

“One of the most rewarding things I heard afterwards,” shared Rabbi Greene, “ was how much the boys appreciated getting to know others on the trip who they didn’t normally socialize with in a school setting. They really got to know and appreciate each other in a relaxed and different setting. It was extremely powerful.”